Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #2; Elizabeth David

 Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #2

Here we are again back in the Kitchen with Book number 92 - 

French Country Cooking by Elizabeth David first published in 1951 my edition 1987

There are chefs who write books and there are cookery writers and then there is Elizabeth David. The Diva of them all.

 Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992

She was born to an upper-class family but she rebelled against social norms of the day. In the 1930s she studied art in Paris, became an actress, and ran off with a married man with whom she sailed in a small boat to Italy, where their boat was confiscated.
They reached Greece, where they were nearly trapped by the German invasion in 1941, but escaped to Egypt, where they parted.
She then worked for the British government, running a library in Cairo. While there she married, but soon separated and divorced.
In 1946 Elizabeth David returned to England, where food rationing remained in force. An interesting life by any standards and she had not even started her amazing career by then. 

In 2006 the BBC did a biopic - 'Elizabeth David: A Life in Recipes' which was fab and crying out to be made as a lavish Merchant Ivory type Production. With no disrespect she would make Julia Child look like a 'Hausfrau' (and I love Julia Child).

Her reputation rests on her articles and her books, her influence on cookery extended to professional as well as domestic cooks, and chefs and restaurateurs of later generations such as Terence Conran, Prue Leith, Jamie Oliver, Tom Parker Bowles and Rick Stein have acknowledged her importance to them. In the US, cooks and writers including Julia Child, Richard Olney and Alice Waters have written of her influence. 

in writing 'French Country Cooking' she acknowledged her debt to French writers, Edmond Richardin, Austin De Croze, Marthe Daudet known as Pampille, and J. B. Reboul..

Estouffade de boeuf à la Provençale

 And now my attempt to cook it

This is my slow cooker with a liner and not a bin bag and yes that does like someone's hand !

I tried but Elizabeth David wins ! it was nice but not special.

Elizabeth David was an elitist and took no prisoners and her books will not hold your hand and talk you through a recipe. She expected you to know how to cook! but her writing changed the we cook and how we think about food, in this country and around the world!

CBE ! she should have been made Dame of the British Empire but then she did stand on a few feet and did not curry favour from any one.

The Holy Tryptic of the Primary Shrine in my kitchen (she is on the right can you name the others)

Ttfn